"My God, boy! You're black and living in the South—did you forget how to lie?"
— Dr. Bledsoe
The first and only completed novel by the critic and reviewer Ralph Ellison, published in 1952 and extremely popular ever since. The plot revolves around a young black man who is determined to rise to a position of influence, but is completely ignorant of the amount of lying and scheming that will take, and who, as he bounces from one situation to another in search of power, both hears the words and witnesses the actions of various people and groups who're manipulating the racial divide.Not to Be Confused withTheInvisible Man, a Science Fiction novel by H. G. Wells.
Dark Messiah: Ras the Exhorter, later known as Ras the Destroyer is almost a deconstruction of this—he thinks he's a grand leader, but he's really just a fat, absurd fellow whom the Powers That Be have no trouble manipulating.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: anything and everything that appears in the novel is a metaphor, from the recipe for the paint the main character helps to make, to the Sambo dolls he attempts to destroy. At times, it gets more than a little Anvilicious.
Driven to Madness: By the end/beginning, the protagonist is siphoning electricity just so that he can turn on a bunch of scavenged lights to feel good, and taking full advantage of his "invisibility."
It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It: The main character comes across a man who raped his daughter by accident (he was sleepwalking/dreaming). When he comes out of the dream and realizes what's happening his daughter refuses to let him stop.
Invisible Jerkass: The protagonist considers himself this. Not literally invisible, but socially invisible and thus able to evade the police after assaulting a man.
Jade-Colored Glasses: the main character winds up with them by the end. In fact he buys them. Bledsoe seems to have always had them.
No Name Given: if a complex character is introduced before their personality is fully explained, they're often not given a full name until we learn their true nature. Some characters go without a name throughout (most notably the narrator, who doesn't quite understand himself.) This is also used with such characters as the Founder to show that No Celebrities Were Harmed.
Not So Harmless: Ras may be an idiot, but he's handy with that spear of his.
One Book Author: While other books were published, they all were posthumous.
Parental Incest: The main character runs across a man who got his wife and daughter pregnant at the same time. This leads him to disaster.
Path of Inspiration: if it's possible to have a secular one, the Brotherhood is this in spades. Even the lower-ranking officials don't realize just how much the organization focuses on gaining power, and how little its highest-ranking members really care about helping the poor and downtrodden.
Powder Keg Crowd: one of the main character's few skills is to manipulate these. Ras can do so too.
Seemingly Wholesome '50s Girl: Sybil is a funny case in that she would qualify as The Ingénue if it weren't for her rape fantasies. (As the victim, mind you, not the rapist—she's utterly smothered by her life, and wants something wild.)
Self-Made Man: Bledsoe is one (or at least pretends to be one, given how much he lies and schemes), while the title character tries to become one.
Stepford Smiler: hoo boy. There are so many black characters to whom this applies, and an awful lot of the Brotherhood fits it too.
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